Same time next half century: Youngsters who last met in 1967 are reunited in 2017

Sleep did not come early or easily to Oopik Nakashook last Friday evening, as anxiety about her planned lunch the following day with Judy Hill and Hill’s family continued to gnaw at her.

The whole week had been like this, since the two agreed to meet Saturday at Dunn’s Famous Deli in the ByWard Market. What was she going to say when they met? What would she ask first? Her husband, Pitse Naulaq, told her not to worry, but that was impossible. At 9:30 a.m. on Saturday, she texted Judy: “Good morning, just a couple more hours! Can’t wait!” before returning to her regular programming of fretting.

Oopik’s apprehension was understandable. She last laid eyes on the Hills 50 years ago, in July 1967, when, at the age of 11, she was one of 100 elementary schoolchildren from Frobisher Bay — now Iqaluit — flown to Ottawa for a two-week centennial visit. The Hills were Oopik’s billets, among scores of Elmvale Acres families who agreed to host this sudden influx of excited Inuit youngsters.

“I said ‘Let’s go for it,’” matriarch Rita Hill admits of their decision to put up one of the visitors. “Why not? This was something very different and exciting, and we led a very dull life.”

Last December, a story in the Citizen about Oopik’s 1967 visit came to the Hills’ attention — Judy lives in Petawawa, her parents, Rita and Ron, in Kanata, and brother Michael, just five in 1967, in Oakville. Eventually a reunion lunch, with Michael unable to attend, was arranged.

Oopik and Pitse were the first to arrive, forcing her to endure still a few more uneasy minutes. For about three years after her 1967 return home to Apex, near Iqaluit, she and Judy, then nine, corresponded by mail, but that exchange eventually tapered to nothing. But it’s not like Oopik ever forgot. Rarely a day has gone by in the past half century that she hasn’t stopped for a moment to think of the Hills and wonder where they were and what they were doing; whether parents Ron and Rita were still alive; if Judy and Michael ever had kids of their own. “I wondered almost every day,” she said just prior to their reunion. “I’ve been looking for her, but now I don’t know what to say.”

She could even still recall their address — 866 Weston Drive — and, in subsequent visits to Ottawa and since moving here permanently two years ago, would now and then find herself passing by the house. Tempted to knock on the door, just in case, the courage always eluded her. Instead, she simply kept her eyes open wherever she went, hoping to spot Judy in passing.

It was Judy, as outgoing as Oopik is reserved, her parents trailing her, who broke the ice at Dunn’s, her arrival instantly dissolving Oopik’s worry with a big smile, a hug and a simple “Good to see you!” Oopik’s eyes filled with tears before she had time to reply: “This is so wonderful!”

Rita, too, confessed to having some anxious moments ahead of Saturday’s reunion. “What if it doesn’t work? We haven’t seen Oopik in 50 years. How many people can see someone they haven’t seen in 50 years?”

So how DO you catch up after half a century? Judy brought an iPad, answering many of Oopik’s questions before she could even ask them: Husband Daniel. Two kids: Olivia and Alexandra. There’s Michael and his wife, Lindsay. They have two kids, Zachary and Erica. A Senators-Rangers hockey game. And cats, lots of cats.

Judy Hill and Oopik Nakashook (standing, in this photo taken 50 years ago) haven’t seen one another since July 1967 when Nakashook was one of 100 Inuit youngsters to visit Ottawa for the centennial celebrations. The two met again for the first time on Saturday, June 24, in the ByWard Market.David Kawai /
Postmedia

Oopik told of her five children and gave Judy some artwork done by one of her twentysome grandchildren. Judy returned the favour with a framed photograph from 1967 showing Oopik and the Hills at their cottage on Muskrat Lake.

“Oh… my… god…” responded Oopik. “I had that picture until my brother burned the house down! I remember the boat scared me.”

Truthfully, almost everything in Ottawa in 1967 scared Oopik. Thrust into a culture of which she knew almost nothing, taken from her friends and family and scarcely understanding English, she was terrified by boats, airplanes, tall buildings and almost everything else. On a swimming outing to Britannia Beach, the sight of a minnow sent her running for terra firma, never to return to the water. She still can’t swim. Meanwhile, she constantly feared she would never see her family again.

Oopik Nakashook and 99 other Inuit children board a plane in Ottawa. After two weeks taking in the capital’s centennial sights, and sites, in 1967, the youngsters were returning to Iqaluit.Courtesy of Rita and Ron Hill.

“The only time I was comfortable was with your family,” she told Judy over lunch. Rita, meanwhile, brought out a small handful of black-and-white photographs: two or three from Muskrat Lake, and two others showing the 100 Inuit children boarding a Canadian Air Forces plane for the flight home, their backs to the photographer as they climbed the boarding stairs. “I remember I was crying,” recalled Oopik. “I didn’t want to leave.”

But it was time, both then and now. With lunch paid for, Facebook pages exchanged and promises made to stay in touch, the Hills went one way and Oopik and Pitse the other, each perhaps thinking what Oopik said aloud: “This was a great day.”

After 50 years, Oopik Nakashook, bottom left, is reunited with the Hill family, who billeted her when she and 99 other youngsters from Frobisher Bay visited Ottawa for two weeks during the nation’s centennial celebrations. Seated beside Nakashook is Rita Hill. In back from left are Judy Hill, Ron Hill and Nakashook’s partner, Pitse Naulaq.Bruce Deachman /
Postmedia

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